One of the most incredible places in Rome is Monte Testaccio, an artificial hill formed by some 25 million testae (“shards,” hence Testaccio) of terracotta oil amphorae, accumulated over a period of 300 years, between the first century B.C. and the third century A.D. In ancient Roman times, goods reached Rome mainly by sea; once they arrived at the port of Ostia, they sailed up the Tiber until they landed at the port of Ripa grande, where they were unloaded. Here the oil was decanted and transported to the Capitoline market, while the amphorae, which could not be reused, were taken precisely to Mount Testaccio, a veritable open-air dump. As the Mount grew in height, a ramp and two paths allowed wagons filled with potsherds to reach the top to unload more pottery, until it reached its current impressive size of 54 meters in height, a kilometer in circumference, and a total of 22,000 square meters in total. Most of the amphorae came from Betica, a Roman province in Spain, in present-day Andalusia; and it is the shards that tell us the story of the amphorae, because they still retain the maker’s mark and the tituli picti, the equivalent of modern labels, which carried customs information such as the year, place of origin, merchant’s name, contents, weight, date of shipment, and place of destination.

This extraordinary guided tour will provide exceptional access to Monte Testaccio and visit a surreal place, walking on top of millions and millions of fragments of Roman amphorae that, more than two thousand years ago, were manufactured in Spain, transported by ship to Rome, emptied of their precious contents, and then dumped in the most incredible landfill ever created by man.